Last weekend Paul Pogba scored two second half goals to help Manchester United rally from down 2-0 and beat Manchester City 3-2, delaying their arch-rivals from clinching the Premier League title (at least for the time being). It was the kind of performance that landed Pogba at the top of individual player power rankings lists (a few of his teammates joined him on those lists too).
The Frenchman showed the world, in a huge contest, the kind of influencer he can truly be on those days that he lives up to the hype. That Paul Pogba, on that day, was what an £89.3 million midfielder truly looks like.
United manager Jose Mourinho obviously doesn’t expect Pogba to do that every game, as it would be ridiculous of any manager anywhere to expect this kind of production from any individual. However, Mourinho certainly expects Pogba to be more consistent throughout.
“I’ll tell you what I told him after the match. I don’t expect you to be man of the match every week, I don’t expect you to score two goals every week. But I expect you to be consistent,” Mourinho said ahead of tomorrow’s clash against last place West Bromwich Albion.
“So, if you ask me if I’m expecting Paul now to be man of the match every week? No. If I expect him to score goals every match? No.
“But I expect Paul, and I think that’s the challenge he has to put to himself, to keep a certain stability and not to have the good match and the so-so match and the bad match.”
“I think he has to try to keep that level of stability, and from that stability of course will appear the special match with the special performance like it happened against City.”
The relationship between Pogba and Mourinho has certainly been over-analyzed and over-saturated with coverage this season. Perhaps a little more consistency from the most expensive player in England history will change that.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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